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Colombia passenger plane hijacked into rebel territory |
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September 11, 2000
BOGOTA (AP) - A man described as a leftist guerrilla prisoner hijacked a plane carrying 21 people Friday, later freeing his captives unharmed when the plane dropped him in rebel territory, police said. Three guards were escorting the prisoner from Bogota to the southwest city of Florencia when he managed to pull a handgun and commandeer the plane, police director Gen. Ernesto Gilibert said. He said it wasn't clear how the hijacker got a hold of a weapon. The hijacking occurred when the Dash 230 turboprop was making a refueling stop at the airport in Neiva, a provincial city southwest of Bogota. It was on a flight from Bogota to the city of Florencia. Gilibert said the hijacker forced the plane to fly to rebel territory, where the plane landed. He then got off and the plane continued on its journey to Florencia. Gilibert said the hijacker is a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's most powerful rebel army. A FARC spokesman confirmed the plane landed at a rebel-held airport in San Vicente del Caguan, just south of Neiva, but denied the hijacker is a member of the guerrilla organization. "This is a common criminal," FARC spokesman Andres Paris told Colombia's RCN television station. "This is not a guerrilla action. This is not a FARC action." Paris said the rebels had apprehended the hijacker, although it was unclear whether they planned to turn him over to authorities. San Vicente del Caguan is part of a a five-township southern region that has been ceded to the FARC as part of peace talks. Troops and police are not allowed to enter the Switzerland-sized territory.
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